Arts & Music

How Gay Is Oakland?

Pretty damn gay, at least according to the Advocate, which published its annual list of clickbait America's gayest cities yesterday and ranked Oakland at #11 — a full six spots, NB, above San Francisco:

11. Oakland, Calif. (pop. 395,817) Cali’s seventh largest city is across the bay from “The City,” and while it’s seriously hard to compete with San Francisco’s LGBT cred, Oakland is no less vibrant yet more diverse and affordable. In fact, it boasts more lesbian couples per capita than any other major American city and ranks third in gay- and lesbian-headed households, after San Francisco and Seattle. This city has students, families, funky gays, an annual Black Pride and Black LGBT Film Festival (BlackLGBTFilmFest.com), and the East Bay Front Runners (EastBayFrontRunners.org), so you can see the scenic bay while burning off the calories consumed at the super-popular White Horse Bar (WhiteHorseBar.com) the night before.

It's worth noting here that a) lists sell magazines and b) this one's metrics are mildly suspect: "Being a great LGBT city doesn’t just mean having a raucous nightlife," the article's subheadline argues, which, while admirable, makes for a bit of a motley crew of supposedly homotastic cities, picked based on a hodgepodge of criteria both substantive (number of LGBT elected officials) and ah, not (quantity of "fabulous shopping"). I'm finding it hard to believe, for example, that number-six city Mormontown, USA Salt Lake City is a full five spots more homo than Oakland, and it bears mentioning that a large concentration of Whole Foods does not a gay mecca make, as this list suggests. But hey! We'll take what we can get.